Because this isnât what I said. I said someone who constantly bashes Taiwan.
Everyone who loves Taiwan will find at least one thing to criticise it. If you go through my posts, Iâve been extremely critical of Taiwanâs treatment of foreigners, the dual citizenship thing, phone companies and banking problems but you can also see my posts are largely positive as well.
Iâve said this before.
Thatâs why I said you havenât read my posts. I criticise out of love, but bashing constantly isnât out of love, itâs pettiness. My opinions are often consistent.
By nature, foreigners that come here willingly are going to be positive because they willingly came here. There is going to be overrepresentation in that. The ones that donât want to will move to where they like.
It has nothing to do with anyoneâs ability to understand that others have a âcritical viewâ I know this, and found such a post quite condescending @Lost.in.space.
The other day I heard an interview on the radio with a Hong Kong couple, who moved to Taichung.
They were happy with the city, the close proximity to hot springs and nature.
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The first caveat they mentioned; the extremely long procedure opening a bank account in Taiwan. Culture shock.
They are usually more subtle and wonât tell you straight away that foreigners cannot open a bank account. They will rather ask a raft of funny questions hoping to find grounds to say that you need to go to another office first or that due to something (and not because you are a foreigner) you are not eligible.
The people to bypass at any cost, based on my experience, are the guys at the entrance who ask you what you are visiting the branch for. @Marco shared his horror story in another thread and I was almost caught off-guard by one too, who tried to get rid of me with the excuse of not being able to call my company and verify that I have a legit job (I have a Gold Card so my employer is not in Taiwan).
So, remember, when you want to open a bank account just tell the staff at the entrance that you already have one and you are only coming to collect your passbook, renew your debit card, etc. This will give you access to the counter staff for the second part of the battle.
The only bank that ever denied me an account because I was a foreigner was Bank of Taiwan.
Cathay also tried to stop me from opening an account saying that I already had too many other accounts. But I threatened to have my wife move her money to another bank, and since she is a big customer of theirs, they gave in.
Mega, Panhsin, HuaNan and Post Office all accepted me with no fuss.
I havenât had any trouble opening bank accounts or getting a credit card (Fubon) here. Just closed a long-time Taishin account tho because its system isnât foreign-friendly.
Yeah I should point out I havenât had any bank troubles yet. Had union bank and now have Fubon
Fubon has been a good experience so far. Wish there was an English translation of the app but this is Taiwan so I donât fault them for having Chinese only
